New rules coming down for off-roaders

Cross-country travel will be banned in most
areas, but enforcement may be next to impossible

ATV riders go around a sign and rocks intended to block
access to a trail in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest

Dan Schroeder, Ogden Sierra Club

Every week, rogue drivers on burly all-terrain vehicles
and powerful dirt bikes carve new trails up steep, rocky ridges and
across open meadows on the Arapaho National Forest in northern
Colorado. On the edges of the forest, off-roaders rip across
private property and race down roads belonging to people who
thought they’d find quiet if they built a home five miles
from any pavement.

Spence Sedacca, who lives on 35 acres
bordering the national forest and rides a four-wheeler himself, is
deeply dismayed by this behavior. "They just flat don’t
care," he says.

And despite new rules from the U.S.
Forest Service, things may not get better any time soon.

In mid-July, the Forest Service released a proposed rule to
consistently manage off-highway vehicles (OHVs) across the
country’s 155 national forests and 21 grasslands. But
environmental and off-road groups alike worry that the rule
won’t do enough to curb increasing damage.

From
Washington to Arizona, off-road vehicle use is skyrocketing.
Nationwide, there were 36 million OHV riders in 2000, seven times
as many as there were 30 years ago. Forest Service Chief Dale
Bosworth lists unmanaged recreation, primarily OHV use, as one of
the top four threats to the nation’s forests. Two of the
other threats — the loss of open space and the spread of
invasive weeds — are exacerbated by motorized vehicles.

As it stands now, there is a confusing mishmash of
regulations across the national forest system: Some forests, such
as the Sulphur Ranger District of Arapaho National Forest, restrict
riders to designated trails; others, such as the Black Hills
National Forest, allow unrestricted cross-country riding. "In some
forests, off-highway vehicle riders have the opportunity to go
wherever they wish," says Sharon Metzler, off-highway vehicle lead
for the Forest Service. "And the end result on the ground is not
very pretty."

Under the proposed new rule, each forest
will inventory its trails and roads, then gather public input to
decide which of them should be open to motorized vehicles. Forest
staffers will then create a map showing which trails are open to
OHVs; copies of it will be available at ranger stations, trailhead
kiosks, and ultimately, on the Internet. Most forests will rely on
these travel maps to guide trail users, rather than putting up
signs. "We’ve had a great deal of difficulty posting trails
as either open or closed," says Metzler. "People who don’t
like the posting just jerk the signs out."

OHV users are
generally pleased but also wary about the proposed rule.
"We’re prepared for some trails to be closed," says Brian
Hawthorne, public-lands director of the BlueRibbon Coalition, an
OHV advocacy group. "But if environmentalists take a hard-line
position about motorized use, ranger districts will find themselves
being litigated, and we’ll still get to go on the trails
while the (designation) decision is tied up in some stupid
lawsuit."

Environmentalists say the proposed rule, which
would prohibit cross-country riding in most areas, is a step in the
right direction, but falls short of protecting forests from abuse.
"We feel that what they’ve come out with will be largely
ineffective," says Aaron Clark of the Southern Rockies Conservation
Alliance. Chief Bosworth has asked forest supervisors to complete
the work within two to four years, but the Forest Service
hasn’t asked Congress for additional funding for the
inventory and mapping work — districts will just have to
redistribute the money they already have. And as it is, the
nation’s forests currently average only one law enforcement
officer for every 450,000 acres, so enforcing any rules will be
difficult.

On the Arapaho National Forest, Sedacca and
his frustrated fellow property owners have started trying to rein
in lawless riders themselves. On a recent Saturday afternoon,
Sedacca watched a group of off-roaders drive onto a neighboring lot
that’s up for sale. The riders tore in circles over and
around the lot’s granite outcroppings, scarring the ground
and crushing shrubs. Sedacca finally drove his own ATV over to the
scene. "I asked them what they thought they were doing. They had
absolutely nothing to say," he recalls.

But Sedacca and
other citizen enforcers may face potential danger in getting
involved: From Utah to California, trail users report that
confrontations are becoming more and more common, and have even
resulted in weapons being brandished by both sides.

"I
stop at least one group of law-breaking riders every weekend. If we
don’t do it, no one else will," says Sedacca. "You can pass
any law you want, but some people will ignore it. It’s still
the Wild West up here."

The author, a former
intern, writes from Fort Collins, Colorado.

Public
comment on the proposed rule will be accepted until Sept. 13 at
www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/ohv